Tombstones

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 46  (Nov 15-21)
Prompt: Tombstones
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Time takes its toll on tombstones.  About thirty years ago, I was researching Charles M. McCurley and his family in Smith County, Texas. A visit to the local library led me to Dean Baptist Cemetery where Charles and his wife, Ann Matilda Hines were buried.

 This was before GPS, but I was lucky enough to find a librarian who knew where the cemetery was located.  She gave me detailed instructions. Even with the instructions, I felt lost before we finally arrived at the small country church with the cemetery. It was on a Saturday so there was no one at the church. We carefully opened the gate and begin to look for their tombstones.  As we went down each row, occasionally a car would slow down and check to see what we were doing. I’m sure the locals were looking out for vandals.

 In the very last row, near the back fence we found their tombstones. They were made from what looked like sandstone or some other soft rock. The names were hand chiseled and were very sparing of letters. There were no dates.  Just C McCurley on one stone, and A McCurley on the other stone.  They both had footstones that had no legible information if there was any at one time. The next grave over was J M which I assume was James McCarley their son. 

Photo on the right taken by David Cook.

I haven’t been back to the cemetery in a long time, but a more recent picture taken by David Cook has been posted on FindAGrave.  The picture below shows that time has eroded the stone even more. The stone is laying on the ground either due to vandalism or weather.

Ghost Story

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 45  (Nov 8-14 )
Prompt: Ghost Story
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 My paternal great great grandparents were John Golightley and Elizabeth Caroline Johnston. John immigrated from Sedgefield, County Durham, England and Elizabeth came from Canada.  They had two sons, worked hard, and became successful in Wellington, Kansas. They raised my grandfather, Johnnie.

 It is well known in my family that Johnnie was afraid of ghosts his entire life. I don’t know why or how that started but it played a part in his life’s story. 

 John and Elizabeth owned two houses in Wellington and the farm with the farmhouse between Wellington and Belle Plaine at the end of their lives. One of the houses was a two-story brick home with a basement in a nice part of town. The other house was a small wood frame house at the edge of town which included a gravel pit behind it.

 After his Grandfather’s death, Johnnie was in the basement of the brick home working on the furnace.He heard his grandfather call his name.He tried to ignore it but being skittish about ghosts to begin with he became more frightened as his Grandfather continued to call his name.He bolted from the basement and refused to ever go in the basement again.

After his Grandmother’s death, Johnnie was given a choice of the two houses in Wellington as well as inheriting a part of the farm.   Since he was sure that the brick home was haunted, he chose the smaller less affluent house on the edge of town.

 There is a rumor in the family that John had some oil and/or silver certificates hidden away. Speculation is that they were hidden in the basement of the brick house and that he was trying to tell Johnnie where they were located. 

Lost Bible of Charles M. McCurley

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 42  (Oct 18-24)
Prompt: Lost
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 The time to do genealogy is now. As time goes by clues, stories, and even artifacts are lost.  Thirty some odd years ago, I was researching Charles M McCurley trying to find definitive proof that he was the son of Ezekiel McCarley. I still haven’t found that definitive proof although I have enough circumstantial evidence to feel comfortable in declaring Ezekiel his father.

 However, those thirty years ago, I was trying to track down a family Bible that showed that direct link.  I researched each of Charles M’s twelve children trying to find a descendent who might have a family Bible with the information I needed. Instead I found a family story of loss.

 Sometime after Charles M. and his wife Ann Matilda Hines McCurley died, the children living near them in Smith County, Texas decided to bulldoze their house. It was not in very good shape and not worth saving at that point in time.  According to the story, everything that no one wanted was left in the house to be destroyed with the house including pictures on the walls.  Supposedly there was one of the old antique dome type pictures of family members and possibly the family Bible.

 I don’t know if the story is true or if the Bible that I would have treasured was in the house or even who were in the picture.  I do know that it still makes me sad to think a Bible with the definitive proof I needed was destroyed.

If anyone has any additional information about this, please let me know. 

Belonging to Sarah Violet

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41  (Oct 11-17)

Prompt: Passed Down

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 I’ve written about Sarah Violet Herndon before because she was difficult to find. She died young at age 34 and my Grandmother loved and missed her mother, Sarah Violet, even after my grandmother became a great-grandmother. It was through her treasures and researching her life that I came to love her. 

 Sarah died when my Grandmother was only 15 years old, but she still left an imprint on the family. She also left several items that my Grandmother passed down. I don’t know what else other members of the family have but I have a quilt and a bowl.

 Grandmother, Gladys, passed the bowl down to my mother, Gwonda, because she looked like her Grandmother, Sarah Violet.  It eventually came to live with me.  Gladys handwrote a note when she passed down the bowl. It states, "Gwonda, This bowl was my Mother's - your Grandmother whom you look a lot like.  Mother"

It is uranium glass and glows under a black light.  Uranium glass can have up to 25% uranium, although most were much less than that. According to Wikipedia uranium glass “fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium … was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s. Most are now considered antiques or retro-era collectibles”.

 In doing research on it, several websites indicated that most uranium glass only has trace amounts of uranium and are not more hazardous to use than lead glass. Of course, one website states that leaded glass is not dangerous unless you eat or drink from it.  Others indicated that cutting the glass and sending fine particles in the air would be a very bad idea for both uranium glass and leaded glass. 

 I plan on keeping this beautiful passed down bowl as a display piece and not eat or drink anything from it.

Flower Girl

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 40 (Oct 4-10)

Prompt: Preservation

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 In 1959, I was 5 years old and a flower girl.  My Dad’s brother, Earl, married my wonderful aunt, Elaine, on December 27^th, 1959. I don’t remember a lot about it other than the dress was kind of itchy and I was not comfortable walking down the aisle by myself. Although I did like throwing out the flower pedals.

 About 3 weeks after their wedding, I was a flower girl for my Aunt Vadie on my Mom’s side of the family.  It was much easier walking down the aisle in that wedding because my cousin, DeWayne, held my hand and walked with me. DeWayne was only 6 years old, but he seemed to know what to do.

 Aunt Elaine’s Mother made her wedding dress, and she made me a dress that matched the bride’s dress.  It was white with lots of lace. About 15 years ago, my mother gave me the dress. She had taken care of it all those years and for several years it hung in my closet. 

 In 2013, I earned a graduate certificate in Archival Administration at the University of Texas. I put what I learned to use by “archiving” several family heirlooms as well as using it at my job. The dress is now protected with archival tissue in an archival box. The box that I bought was really bigger than it needed to be, but it worked out okay. I added the Kimono that my father-in-law brought back from Japan for one of his little sisters later.

 My next preservation project is to make archival boxes or envelopes to preserve the handkerchiefs that belonged to both my Grandmothers and my Mother.

Courthouse Road Trip

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 39  (Sept 27-Oct 3)
Prompt: Road Trip
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Road trips are the best. I love doing genealogy in place and finding those obscure records that are still not online.  I started road trips before any records were online. Sometimes to a local library, archive, or cemetery.  The most interesting to me is going to courthouses because you never know what you are going to find.

 Before I tell you about one of my courthouse trips, I must tell you about my husband’s Aunts trip.  They were visiting in a small town named for their grandfather and decided to do a little casual research in the courthouse. When they told the courthouse ladies about their connection to the town and some of their related surnames, one of the ladies told them of an elderly lady in town with the same surname and where she lived. (It was a small town and my husband’s 4 aunts are very personable.) They decided to drop by the lady’s home to meet her. She invited them in. After establishing their direct connections and finding common relatives they all knew, she pulled out albums of pictures which they studied for hours.  Before the visit was over, she had invited them to spend the night which they did. The next morning the aunts fixed breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, and headed out for their next adventure leaving behind a newfound relative.

While my courthouse adventures have never turned into a place to stay for the night, I have had some wonderful adventures.  I won’t mention the name, but I drove 3 hours to a courthouse in Texas to find any mention of a gun battle involving some of my great grandfather’s brothers.

It turned into a dark and stormy day by the time I reached the courthouse. The records that I wanted to search were so far into the past that they had been “archived” in the courthouse attic.  There were no stairs to the attic but there was an elevator. The elevator only ran with the key that a staff member used to escort me to the attic. As we traveled upward, she told me since storms were moving in that if the storm reached us, I should call them to come get me before the electricity went out. She left me in the attic with the phone number in my hand. 

The staff had no idea where a “warrant” might be located, but they did tell me where the land records and court records were located in filing cabinets.  The attic was kind of a maze of filing cabinets.  I found the court records first and the time period which I had determined the gun battle had most likely happened. I found nothing. Then I searched the land records just to see if I could pinpoint the land where this battle over a fence happened. I didn’t find the record of land being bought or sold even though it was listed in the index. I was later told that  it had probably been stolen. 

As the afternoon advanced, I could hear the thunder getting louder. There were no windows, so it was hard to judge just how close the storm was coming.  The louder the thunder got, the louder the birds, until I felt compelled to investigate. I went around several stacks of filing cabinets to see a brick wall about thigh high. I could see over the wall to bare rafters and no flooring. As I started to step over the wall, I spotted the sky in the distance. The entire end of the attic was open to the dark and angry looking sky. The birds were roosting in the attic space near the opening, hiding from the coming storm.

After contemplating for a few minutes, I decided that it was time for me to get out of the attic before I was stranded.  I quickly moved back into the attic archives area and called the staff to come and get me.

I didn’t find what I wanted, and I should probably go back again.  Next time, it will be a bright and sunny day.

Timeline for Edith Ethelda Neese (Sample, Wort, Kerns)

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 34  (Aug 23-29)
Prompt: Timeline
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Concept maps can be a visual representation of your goals or research. Years ago I was introduced to mind mapping in a history class.  Now it is often called concept mapping.  A few years ago, I started doing a workshop for college students showing them how to do research planning with concept maps. Then it morphed into genealogy research planning. 

 Concept maps have several benefits. Mostly I use them for planning my research and analyzing data, but when I started doing genealogy presentations on concept maps, timelines seemed to work well.   

 I  prefer creating them with paper and map pencils or markers. Somehow the act of using pencils or markers helps me escape from the box and frees my creativity. I often think of new ways to solve genealogy brick walls when I create research plans with concept maps. I have a spiral sketch pad where I draw my concept maps.  You don't have to be a good artist as some of my drawings are very crude.  Doing it on the computer makes it neater, but doesn't have the same freeing affect for me.

 Below is a timeline concept map created in PowerPoint about my 2nd Great Grandmother, Edith Ethelda Neese. She outlived three husbands and had eight children, all with her first husband, William Britton Sample.